You know you’re in for a good night when it’s door opening time and there are staff making sure the roads aren’t blocked. Monday night and a queue around the corner kind of good.
The 2,900-person capacity venue had enough room to get to the bar, just, and with crowd-surfing and moshing all through the evening these two young bands clearly instill excitement and enthusiasm in their fans.
High Tyde, a 4-piece like The Hunna, hit the stage with great energy and great reactions from the crowd. They kept the tempo high until the very end and only the introduction to ‘Dark Love’ showed a bit of a softer side we might see develop over time. As The Hunna said of them during their own set, High Tyde“smashed it”.
The Hunna came out to another great response from the crowd. A bit slow to start after their introduction music, but when they did kick in with ‘You & Me’ they kicked in hard. Singer/guitarist, Ryan Potter, sounded a little tired to begin with and I did wondered if the road was wearing them down. But The Hunna seem to be a band that feeds off the love from the crowd and kept building momentum up to the end of the night.
The Hunna have a real gift for writing a sing-a-long chorus and the crowd knew them all, every word. Ryan Potter let the crowd take the lead more than once or twice, basking in having his lyrics sung back to him.
But the highlight of the night was ‘We Could Be’, tucked into the last third of the set; a real powerhouse of a song, it’s clear why it’s one of The Hunna’s singles. Although somehow it felt like the end of the set and I half expected to see them to just walk off, but ‘Rock My Way’ and ‘Bonfire’ followed in quick succession. The actual ending (before the inevitable encore) was a proper rock show of feedback and noise; the roar of a crowd still hungry for hits.
The Hunna finished with a three song encore of ‘World is Ours’, ‘Brother’ and finally ‘Bad For You’ – all kicked off with another piece of musical Interlude. Again, the interlude and song didn’t quite flow smoothly; between this and some of Ryan Potter’s clichéd ‘Best Audience Ever’ style patter, I felt the edge was knocked off their performance. I’ve heard all the old rock lines used before and this gig brought no new ones to add to the list.
That said, throughout their set it was clear that The Hunna are totally into their music and love every note. Definitely a good night. And after the encore it was no less busy outside, but nobody seemed in a rush to go home and admit it was all over.
There’s something inherently sad about writing this. Epochs, eras, fads and fashions… Black Sabbath are coming back to Birmingham (minus Bill Ward) to play their last gigs, with two dates in the biggest venue their hometown has to offer.
The near 50 year foot stamp of Black Sabbath’s authority is coming to The End, as the children turned fathers of Heavy Metal (being the band that coined then defined the genre) are no longer coming out to play. It is a difficult time. It’s a sad time. It is a time to remember and to celebrate. It’s also a time to mug the nearest pensioner for your ticket money, as you’ll get little change left over from a couple of Matthew Boultons.
This is Birmingham Review, so I shouldn’t need to do this, but… Black Sabbath were born when a handful of Brummie blues rockers decided the name Earth was just a little too pants and wanted to play some serious rock. Black Sabbath was born and through a series of creative evolution became tougher, darker, more politicised and iron clad than… well, a blues rock band called Earth.
Black Sabbath’s eponymous debut album was recorded and mixed in two days, got slammed by the rock music press and charted instantaneously. Four months later and they were recording their sophomore LP – the legendary, pivotal, game changing Paranoid (nee War Pigs). Buy the time Black Sabbath’s third album, Master of Reality, was leaving blank spaces on shelves both in the UK and across the pond, the homespun four piece from north Birmingham were global stars and music had a new genre. Nothing would ever be the same again.
Black Sabbath’s subsequent years saw a myriad of line-up changes, public bust ups, accidental animal dismembering, award show reconciliations, world tours and a total of 19 studio albums – the last with nearly all of the original line up being 13, released in 2012. Black Sabbath’s final recorded release, an eight track EP called The End, has been made only available at the final shows.
Ozzy was quite something to watch, storming through a set to a packed out Town Hall, and along with Tonni Iommi and Geezer Butler is still one of the city’s proud badges of musical honour. Black Sabbath are rock stars, in the absolute sense of the sobriquet.
Like ‘em, loathe ‘em, listen to ‘em or not, Black Sabbath are a corner stone of Birmingham’s modern culture – in centuries to come the robotic spawn of Carl Chinn will be giving a lecture somewhere about “…a fully humanoid gestalt entity that changed the world of music.”
And The End is nigh… Your LAST CHANCE EVER to see Black Sabbath, with all the original members bar the publicly capricious Bill Ward (seriously dude…), is now a ticking clock reality. Let a city mourn and rejoice. Here’s our Graham with a quick reminder:
‘War Pigs’ – Black Sabbath (Paranoid Tour – live in Paris 1970)
Black Sabbath bring The End Tour to the Genting Arena, playing their final live dates on Thursday 2nd and Saturday 4th February, as presented by Live Nation UK. For direct gig info and online tickets sales, click here.
For more on Black Sabbath, (just stick your head out a Birmingham window, or…) www.blacksabbath.com
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For more from the Genting Arena, including full event listings and online ticket sales, visit www.gentingarena.co.uk
“I think I’m changing into something else… it’s because of you.”
It’s cold. Scratch that. It’s fucking cold. Apologies; extreme conditions bring out the worst in me. The only thing tempering my murderous intent is the thought of comfort once I get to the Mockingbird – to watch the first Birmingham screening of Prevenge. I was not made for the cold. And God loves a cinema you can eat burgers and drink beer in.
Prevenge is the feature film directorial debut from Alice Lowe – the Godiva bum and bomb crater born writer/actress who co-penned Sightseers, Ben Wheatley’s disturbing black comedy about love, loyalty and caravanning.
Picking her way through the burdens of pregnancy, Prevenge follows a single central character – Ruth (played by Lowe) – as she prepares her nest by killing apparent strangers, all at the subconscious behest of her unborn daughter. As the narrative evolves we see more method in this madness. But as the ever cloying midwife explains, played beautifully by Jo Hartley, “baby knows what to do, baby will tell you what to do. It’s just nature’s way”.
Wasting little time in her sophomore film script (it took nearly halfway through Sightseers until we saw blood) Lowe/Ruth’s first victim is a creepy pet store owner, who’s obsession with showing off the darker side of nature gets him killed before the opening credits.
The next one of ‘Baby’s First Steps’, the macabre baby book that Ruth is filling with memories, is the beer bellied, tongue flicking DJ Dan – who is just as date rape as he sounds. Miserable, yes. Deserving, possibly. But at his most…. exposed moment, the demise of this sad middle aged man-boy got a cheer from the audience behind me. I’ll leave that with you; see the film and make your own mind up.
The following murders are increasingly related, as the past that propels Ruth becomes both more posthumous and alive. And there are some truly exquisite moments. In the space of a one sided job interview, Alice Lowe explores the power struggle of employment, career focused self deprecation, faux feminism, faux solidarity, and how to murder someone with Kill Bill chic. Puns withstanding, the passive aggressive power play across a cold boardroom table is simply wonderful stuff.
As with Sighteers the premise for Prevenge could have easily got stuck – relying on the one trick pony of personal eugenics and selling itself in ten words or less. Pregnant serial killer. Now where’s my funding.
But there’s more to Prevenge than that, perhaps even too much, as the script takes a more serious look at the objectification of pregnancy, the brutality/reality of nature and the disappearing voice of a quickly forgotten host.
Ruth is continuously told and not asked, with her body becoming the vehicle for something that should be tacitly allowed to control and consumer her; she is both governed by and governor of the creature inside her. But Ruth is also desperate to love and be loved, to escape the painful past that haunts her future. Even if it takes a few blunted kitchen knives to wipe the slate clean.
Alice Lowe’s portrayal of Ruth (Lowe once again playing the murderous protagonist of her script) is poised and balanced. Not an easy role to pull off, but with seasoned timing Ruth enjoys moments of gleeful manipulation with each of her victims – fleshing out the disparagement and disputes that pregnancy can create, one kill at a time. It’s both glorious and terrifying; I am (once again) half convinced that this Coventry creative is hiding bodies under a patio somewhere in the Midlands.
The support cast is pretty much faultless too – although they don’t get too much time on screen to swing it far one way or the other. As mentioned, Jo Hartley’s patronising midwife is a superb stab at the way people talk to both ‘mummy’ and ‘baby’. Gemma Whelan’s charitable cold shoulder (“…you don’t know with charities these days”) sets up one of the best sparring matches in the film, verbal or otherwise. Whilst the litany of creepy males, from the absurdly narcissistic DJ Dan to the blended sensibility of hipster housemate Josh, are near perfect as single scene cannon fodder.
It is the sub plot that arguably suffers, with the fuel behind Ruth’s rampage almost fighting for a final resting place. In pre-production, Prevenge could have been pitched anywhere between a straight up slapstick black comedy and a sharp tongue in cheek dissection of the modern role of ‘mother’. In post-production it lands between to the two, but with slivers of narrative thread that don’t fully tie up or support the end film. A 5 second shot of Ruth holding another picture, showing a smiling group engaged in ‘activity’, might have been well placed near the beginning.
Prevenge is also a little Alice Lowe centric (writes the man who obsessively controls his own multi faceted website) with the tone overtly dictated by the one woman production powerhouse. It works though, so not really a negative this time, but if Lena Dunham has shown us nothing else… Next stop a bigger budget and crew.
And I wouldn’t worry if you don’t have a womb; Prevenge is absolutely worth some time, money and further discussion no matter what gender box you tick. Jokes about lactating nipples aside the script explores enough universal truths to engage to us all – primarily the mollycoddling of what is essentially a brutal, natural world.
As Ruth says herself, “I think nature’s a bit of a cunt, don’t you.” And I want to sear flesh when I’m stuck outside at the sharp end of January.
Prevenge – by Alice Lowe
Prevenge will out on general UK release from 10th February – as presented by Western Edge Pictures. For more on Prevenge, visit www.prevengemovie.co.uk
Thursday 19th January saw the return of The Blue Aeroplanes to a sold-out Hare & Hounds, promoting their 14th studio album Welcome, Stranger! Last seen at this venue in December 2013 it appears to be the exact same line-up tonight. Famous for their ever-changing crew (47, including today’s line up) is this period of stability something of a record for the band?
The roar of aircraft engines fill the room and the stage lights go into search-light mode as all seven members of The Blue Aeroplanes take to the stage. Head aeroplane, Gerard Langley, in check suit and ever present wayfarer shades, clutches a folder of full of lyrics giving him the air of a cool college tutor. (In keeping with the hero-teacher role, and as way of introducing a couple of songs, he later gives a mini-lecture on the superstition associated with walking under ladders and pose a philosophical conundrum on the existence, or non-existence, of the future.)
‘Dead Tree! Dead Tree!’ from Welcome, Stranger! opens the set, followed by ‘Yr Own World’ from the 1991 album Beatsongs. “So far 50-50″, declares Gerard Langley, “but this is not a nostalgia exercise” he warns, alluding to the fact that over half the set will be comprised of new material with all ten tracks from Welcome, Stranger! being played tonight. Or possibly referring to the rumour that this album is something of a departure for the band sound wise? In a recent interview with Marc Riley, Langley said Welcome, Stranger! is “less of the leftfield, arty, poetry stuff and more of the riff-y, chorus-y stuff’.
This ‘riff-y, chorus-y stuff’ is evident in the songs ‘Looking for the X’s On A Map’ and ‘Here Is The Heart of All Wild Things’ – the latter including a My Bloody Valentine ‘You Made Me Realise’ extended aural assault section, as guitars and drums repeatedly pound away in the closing minutes. ‘Skin’ sees guitarist Bec Jevons adeptly fronting the band, taking on lead vocals whilst still rocking out foot on monitor style with her Fender Stratocaster. Played live this proves to be an absolute tank buster of a song.
So not an exercise in nostalgia. But tonight isn’t just about the new stuff and there’s room for some more much-loved old familiars. ‘What It Is‘, slows things down and the crowd sway along. Gerard Langley is relieved of vocal duties for two numbers as first guitarist, Gerard Starkie, and then bassist, Chris Sharp, take on ‘Missy Lane’ and ‘Fun’ respectively. But it’s two of the big hitters from Swagger, ‘…And Stones’ and ‘Jacket Hangs’ (playing cards thrown into the crowd in unison with the opening lines), that are met with the biggest cheers of the night; pockets of the audience are dancing, throwing their arms around and generally swanning about.
Talking of dancing… it’s about time The Blue Aeroplanes’ long-standing dancer, Wojtek Dmochowski, was mentioned. He seems to have decided that middle-age isn’t for him; it’s just not his thing. In constant motion (and a sweat drenched red ‘#keepcorbyn’ t-shirt) he bends, leaps, weaves and free dances his way around fellow band members, pushing himself off the walls, eventually ending up in the audience for a dance along. Earlier Langley had joked that Wojtek Dmochowski was only here to flog his new fitness DVD.
But Gerard Langley has some fine stage moves himself: dodge, step aside, swing, take cover manoeuvres that look a lot more manageable than a ‘full Wojtek’. The rest of The Blue Aeroplanes engage in semi-choreographed mayhem as they joust, thrust, charge and entangle each other with guitar cables and, like Dmochowski, eventually spill out into the audience during one of the encores.
The first of which (we get two tonight) includes a cover of Bob Dylan’s ‘I Wanna Be Your Lover’ and ‘Poetland, the last song played from Welcome Stranger! The second encore begins with a lone Bec Jevons on stage, starting up the riff for traditional set closer: Tom Verlaine’s ‘Breaking in My Heart’. Soon joined by the rest of The Blue Aeroplanes, plus support act – Leicester’s Michael Vickers, more cavorting ensues from both tonight’s musicians and audience.
As the final few bars are thrashed out, Gerard Langley collects his notes, walks to the side of the stage, and causally puts on his jacket. Lecture over.
Now know that Prevenge is the directorial debut feature film from Alice Lowe – who spread her smaller screen wings amongst such macabre magic as Garth Marenghi’s Dark Place, The Mighty Boosh, Little Britain, The IT Crowd and Black Books. Lowe has previous penned (and co-starred in) a feature film too, Sightseers, about a murder rampage come caravanning holiday. So not Carry-on-a-Cliché when it comes to what’s funny.
But what lies underneath Prevenge’s surface are deeper questions about antenatal depression, the objectification of pregnancy, the brutality of pregnancy, human morality and original sin. The central character, Ruth, an emotionally detached automaton with a kitchen knife, is not meant to be a lovable rogue. There’s no championing of the cull with a Dexter-esque analysis, this is real life. Just thank God it’s not real. And (so I’ve heard) the humour may be too dark for some to laugh at.
Personally I’d crawl over broken glass to see how this premise unfolds, although that’s probably an exaggeration. Loose gravel. But if you need some stamps of industry authority Prevengewas both nominated for the Doug Hickox Award at the British Independent Film Awards and won the Monster Innovation Award at Australia’s ‘premier genre film festival’ in 2016. Prevenge also made the official selection for the BFI London Film Festival, the Toronto International Film Festival and the Venice International Critics’ Week the same year.
But what does anyone know… And considering Alice Lowe was pregnant when filming Prevenge, bearing in mind both the film’s clear narrative thread and the tribulations of method acting, I’m not saying anything too loudly either way.
begin with and I did wondered if the road was wearing them down. But The Hunna seem to be a band that feeds off the love from the crowd and kept building momentum up to the end of the night.
That said, throughout their set it was clear that The Hunna are totally into their music and love every note. Definitely a good night. And after the encore it was no less busy outside, but nobody seemed in a rush to go home and admit it was all over.
